On Improvement & Kaizen

One of my 2017 goals has been to live a healthier lifestyle. Since the new
year, I've been attending a calisthenics class twice a week. The exercises we
do are drawn out over long periods of time with very short breaks in between.
The goal is to make you look and feel like this:

All jokes aside, before I began my most recent session I reminded myself of
something important.

To pace myself.

This got me thinking: Why don't I apply this very notion of pacing myself to
other aspects of my life?

My impatience manifests itself in many ways. One of those manifestations is my
desire to do things now. Or change now. Or stop now. The problem with
this now mentality is that it's not based on realistic expectations. We are
all humans and as such need time to change.

Gradual improvement is the basis for achieving anything.

Look at the Kaizen mentality. Kaizen
is the foundation for Lean Software
Development and many
other surprising ways of achieving better results with less resistance.

Presenting radical change to any system strains it to its limits.

A good example of this is the Frog
Metaphor. A frog dropped into hot
water will sense the danger and jump out. A frog dropped into cool water,
which is slowly heated, will not notice the danger in time and die.

So we too must beware not to scare or exhaust ourselves out of challenging
goals. If a change you seek is a long and hard journey (but for the betterment
of yourself), then you must be mindful to move patiently towards that goal.

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Even things outside of our control are best tackled through a gradual
approach. Consider addictions. A person with an addiction can't simply decide
to cut off her dependency. That's why nicotine patches exist. They literally
eliminate your smoking addiction in a gradual manner.

A gradual approach is also important when learning something new. Don't expect
to master a subject immediately. And don't bite off more than you can chew by
subjecting yourself to academic tasks beyond your realm of understanding.
Break things down into small, digestible pieces that make learning something
even as complex as rocket science fun.

This gradual mentality also helps one become more ambitious. The media is
great at creating grandiose portraits of people without any reminder of the
long path they took to get there. Don't think you cannot achieve what they
did. By embracing who you are, and not letting the gap between your current
self and your ideal self frighten you, then you can take small and
unintimidating steps toward achieving massive goals.